I could use some help booking our vacation. We are flying into London and then staying 4 nights there. We then want to stay 2 nights in Liverpool, 2 nights in York, and 3 in Edinburgh. We will end the trip with 4 nights in Paris. What I can't decide on is in what order we should stay in concerning Liverpool/York/Edinburgh.

We will be traveling by train from each city, with the goal of flying into Paris (from whichever city is last on the list of the 3 cities) for the last four days of our trip (Paris is booked so I can't change this).

Geographically, it seems to make sense to stay in Liverpool, then York and then Edinburgh from where we will fly into Paris?

Is there any reason (specifically regarding ease of travel, avoiding one airport over another, best city to be in on the weekend vs. the others) that stands out that would make you change this order? Thanks for any help!

You get more frequent flights to Paris, with more airlines to choose from, from Edinburgh than from Liverpool.

Depending a bit on precisely which weekend, Liverpool hotels fill up more, and more noisily, at weekends. Edinburgh's relatively less attractive to the domestic stag/hen industry. Liverpool, though, is also more attractive to the blockbuster conference business, so its hotels can occasionally be more likely to be swamped with trade unionists, political activists or whatever. Just check hotel prices and availability.

Me personally, I'd probably do London > York > Edinburgh > Liverpool then fly to Paris from there. There is a fast train from London to York and from York to Edinburgh.

But honestly - it doesn't make that much difference what order you choose since you can fly to Paris from either Edinburgh or Liverpool.

The point of both these answers, though, is that the two cities have quite different tourism peaks and troughs (availability of everything in Edinburgh's practically non-existent in August, for example). It's well worth checking airfares and hotel prices in each before committing to a timetable.

Thanks for the replies...I will take a look at the specifics...flight costs are about the same to Paris from both Liverpool and EDI so it will probably boil down to which has better/faster train service. We will be there in late May.

trains can cost a ton of money if you want to just hop on them or can be dirt-cheap if you book the limited in number deep discounted tickets online weeks in advance - non-refundable non-changeable often so no flexibility to just show up at stations and hop on trains - check www.nationalrail.co.uk for what fares are available - easy to book online and this may factor into your decisions on routing - taking the cheapest routing available. Really you can pay hundreds of bucks more if you just show up. And if you desire flexibility then investigate a railpass as a few full fare tickets can make it pay - especially if traveling in off season where passes are discounted 20% - and if you have more than two folks traveling then the Party Pass makes the 3rd thru 9th person pay only half price and all kids under 16 get free passes - so those are factors also in efficacy of pass. And also a British citizen can get a free pass to match yours if you have friends in the UK to travel with!

Cheapest way is to pre-book online no doubt but for flexibility a pass may be best - check full fares at www.nationalrail.co.uk and compare.

About how expensive full fares can be - I was on a train from London to Manchester and the announcement warned holders of online discounted tickets (that are train specific only) to be sure they were on the right train because full fare was 120 pounds and if they were not on the right train they would be charged full fare! 120 pounds being say about $180 or more just for a 2-hr trip shows how railpasses can be cost effective for folks wishing flexibility to just show up and hop on any of the zillions of trains anytime - so it depends on what you want and also if traveling with a party of more than two or with kids, etc.

www.thetrainline.com is a similar rail booking site selling fares of all of Britain's few dozen and more independent rail franchises. I think they may have a service charge however when www.thetrainline.com does not.

We are definitely going to pre-book well in advance for the train tickets...the flexibility would be nice, but we can just plan accordingly so we can save money. Thanks for the info.

Well book as early as possible to get the cheapest fare - they do sell out and then you move to a higher level. Some discounts are I believe obtainable at train stations in England if you meet the conditions of use.

And there are also lots of inter-city buses in the UK - lots and lots of them - though IME not as comfy as trains, where you can easily get up and walk around, and not as fast usually they are really cheap compared to trains - especially if you do not pre-book - pretty much can just show up at bus station and not pay a ton more for doing so like on trains.